Ripple, creator of XRP, has announced the acquisition of Fortress Trust, a regulated entity that provides custody and other services in regard to digital assets. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Ripple was an investor in Fortress during its seed funding round in 2022.
Ripple previously acquired METACO for $250 million as it consolidates certain crypto services.
Fortress Trust provides infrastructure services for the enterprise crypto market.
In a blog post, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated:
“As an early investor in Fortress Trust, we’ve had a chance to get to know the team, its vision and technology. Since their launch in 2021, they’ve built an impressive business with recurring revenue and a strong roster of both crypto-native and new-to-crypto customers. We’re excited to bring on this team and its technology to accelerate our business and continue pressing our advantage in the areas critical to crypto infrastructure.”
Fortress holds a Bitlicense in the State of New York and is regulated in Nevada as a Trust company. Fortress is also regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), a top Fintech jurisdiction, as a Major Payment Institution.
Scott Purcell, CEO of Fortress Blockchain Technologies, who previously founded Prime Trust, issued the following statement:
“We’re extremely pleased that Fortress Trust will be acquired by Ripple, one of the largest and most innovative companies in the industry – it’s a testament to the team and business that we’ve built in a short period of time. Furthermore, we look forward to continuing to collaborate and deepening our partnership with our Web3 payments solution.”
While Prime Trust is currently in receivership, Purcell had completely exited the firm, including his equity stake, prior to its failure. Purcell founded Fortress in 2021.
Ripple noted that following the closure of the deal, it will invest in parent company Fortress Blockchain Technologies and its FortressPay services.
